Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Steven Spielberg Presents "Taken" (DVD)

This is topic Steven Spielberg Presents "Taken" (DVD) in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 12-21-2003, 02:15 PM:

Got this as a birthday present.

It's a 6-DVD box set with 5 discs containing the 10-episode miniseries that originally aired on Sci-Fi channel last year. The sixth disc has supplemental material which I have not viewed yet.

I tried watching this during the TV premiere but with so many storylines, the commercial interruptions became problematic for me. I videotaped the episodes when the show was re-broadcast as a marathon earlier this year, expecting that I could fast-forward my way through commercials. I never watch the videos because VHS sucks. I figured it would eventually get the DVD treatment.

DVD is definitely the way to go and if you're into sci-fi (and, in particular, the Roswell incident) then do yourself a favor and watch "Taken."

Technical issue -- I am witnessing an apparent interlace problem during some of the cut points in the third episode. Using Pause or Step, some "cuts" show up as a single-frame dissolve (probably a phantom frame) with thin horizontal stripes all the way through. I do not recall seeing this problem when watching episodes 1 & 2 -- and I was using a different player for those first two episodes.

Has anyone else experienced this (or a similar) problem?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 12-22-2003, 11:30 AM:

The player (Apex AD-2500) is/was to blame. The disc plays fine in another machine (Apex AD-500).

I have another AD-2500 machine. I wonder if I will be able to observe the same problem on that unit. In other words, are they all defective or is just one machine having issues?

Posted by Joe Schmidt (Member # 822) on 02-16-2004, 05:30 AM:

The sci-fi channel features the most schlocky-type presentation available anywhere, worst of all the huge bug in lower right-hand corner. But sometimes it is the only source available other than buying the dvd.

What I do is regard the airing on sci-fi as Work. My PVR satellite receiver captures to the HDD, then later I transfer to VHS, carefully snipping out the garbage. My reward comes a month or two later when I will settle down and enjoy the film.

Taken was kinda intriguing, but I won't pop for a dvd set of it.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-16-2004, 11:56 AM:

I always avoid watching special shows like "TAKEN" when they are first shown on television because I know they will soon become available on DVD without commercials with much better picture quality and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Because I have always loved science fiction movies, I bought the DVD as soon as it was released and I was looking forward to a good time watching the show during the next five evenings. I was wrong. There is no question it was well done and deserved all the great reviews but I personally found the show very boring after watching the first two hours. I made every effort to like it and even tried watching it again the following evening thinking my mind was too tired the night before to enjoy it and I still found the show boring. I no longer have the DVD anymore because I sold it at a flea market and used the money to buy something else.

Going back to what I said about watching mini series on TV, I decided to watch "ANGELS IN AMERICA" when it was shown on HBO because it was only six hours long and divided into two Sunday evening showings without commercials. I thought the show was excellent and deserved every Golden Globe award it received. The release date for the DVD has already been announced and I will buy it as soon as it comes out.

-Claude